The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.
Barbara EhrenreichRead
Individually the poor are not too tempting to thieves, for obvious reasons. Mug a banker and you might score a wallet containing a month's rent. Mug a janitor and you will be lucky to get away with bus fare to flee the crime scene.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the disparity in wealth and the differing motivations for crime based on socioeconomic status.
Barbara Ehrenreich's quote critiques the idea that crime is a random act devoid of socioeconomic context. By contrasting the potential gains from robbing different social classes, she illustrates the inherent inequalities in wealth distribution, emphasizing that thieves often target those who hold substantial assets rather than the financially struggling individuals who have little to take.
In practice
In a discussion about economic inequality, this quote can illustrate how crime is often driven by desperation and opportunity.
The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.
The secret of the truly successful, I believe, is that they learned very early in life how not to be busy. They saw through that adage, repeated to me so often in childhood, that anything worth doing is worth doing well. The truth is, many things are worth doing only in the most slovenly, halfhearted fashion possible, and many other things are not worth doing at all.
From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8,000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.
Well I do think there are people who are habitually negative and depressed and take the opposite approach because they imagine the worst, and their minds become dominated by that. They let their own emotions and expectations transform their perceptions of the world.
Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody's mom in that she knows what's best for us. But if you look at the historical record - Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages - you have to ask yourself: Whose side is she on, anyway?
I would never call myself a cancer survivor because I think it devalues those who do not survive. There's this whole mythology that people bravely battle their cancer and then they become survivors. Well, the ones who don't survive may be just as brave, you know, just as courageous, wonderful people.
If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets.
You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.
Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess, and yet all the honesty in the world ain't lawful tender for a loaf of bread.
Crimes are not to be measured by the issue of events, but by the bad intentions of men.
Many commit the same crime with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.
The camera could be a very powerful instrument against discrimination, against poverty, against racism.
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